1Again the Lord spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho:[ † ]Numbers 33:50 2“Command the Israelites to give, from the inheritance they will possess, cities for the Levites to live in and pasturelands around the cities.[ † ]Joshua 14:3-4Joshua 21:2-3Ezekiel 45:1Ezekiel 48:10-20Leviticus 25:32-34 3The cities will be for them to live in, and the pasturelands will be for their herds, their flocks, and all their other livestock.
4The pasturelands around the cities you are to give the Levites will extend a thousand cubits from the wall on every side. 5You are also to measure two thousand cubits outside the city on the east, two thousand on the south, two thousand on the west, and two thousand on the north, with the city in the center. These areas will serve as larger pasturelands for the cities.
6Six of the cities you give the Levites are to be appointed as cities of refuge, to which a manslayer may flee. In addition to these, give the Levites forty-two other cities.[ † ]Deuteronomy 4:41Joshua 20:2-7, 8Joshua 21:3-13 7The total number of cities you give the Levites will be forty-eight, with their corresponding pasturelands.[ † ]Joshua 21:41 8The cities that you apportion from the territory of the Israelites should be given to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance of each tribe: more from a larger tribe and less from a smaller one.”[ † ]Joshua 21:3Numbers 26:54Numbers 33:54
9Then the Lord said to Moses, 10“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,[ † ]Deuteronomy 19:2Joshua 20:1-9 11designate cities to serve as your cities of refuge, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there.[ † ]Exodus 21:13Numbers 35:22-25Deuteronomy 19:1-13 12You are to have these cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands trial before the assembly.[ † ]Deuteronomy 19:6Joshua 20:3-5, 6
13The cities you select will be your six cities of refuge.[ † ]Numbers 35:6 14Select three cities across the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan as cities of refuge.[ † ]Deuteronomy 4:41Joshua 20:8 15These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or stranger among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.[ † ]Numbers 15:16
16If, however, anyone strikes a person with an iron object and kills him, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.[ † ]Exodus 21:12-14Leviticus 24:17Deuteronomy 19:11-12 17Or if anyone has in his hand a stone of deadly size, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death. 18If anyone has in his hand a deadly object of wood, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.
19The avenger of blood is to put the murderer to death; when he finds him, he is to kill him.[ † ]Numbers 35:21-24, 27Deuteronomy 19:6-12
20Likewise, if anyone maliciously pushes another or intentionally throws an object at him and kills him,[ † ]Genesis 4:82 Samuel 3:272 Samuel 20:101 Kings 2:31-32Exodus 21:14Deuteronomy 19:11-12 21or if in hostility he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death; he is a murderer. When the avenger of blood finds the murderer, he is to kill him.
22But if anyone pushes a person suddenly, without hostility, or throws an object at him unintentionally,[ † ]Exodus 21:13 23or without looking drops a heavy stone that kills him, but he was not an enemy and did not intend to harm him, 24then the congregation must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.[ † ]Numbers 35:12Joshua 20:6 25The assembly is to protect the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.[ † ]Joshua 20:6Exodus 29:7Leviticus 4:3Leviticus 21:10
26But if the manslayer ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he fled 27and the avenger of blood finds him outside of his city of refuge and kills him, then the avenger will not be guilty of bloodshed, 28because the manslayer must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may he return to the land he owns. 29This will be a statutory ordinance for you for the generations to come, wherever you live.[ † ]Numbers 27:11
30If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death on the testimony of the witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of a lone witness.[ † ]Deuteronomy 17:6Deuteronomy 19:15Matthew 18:16John 7:51John 8:17-182 Corinthians 13:1Hebrews 10:28
31You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death. 32Nor should you accept a ransom for the person who flees to a city of refuge and allow him to return and live on his own land before the death of the high priest.
33Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.[ † ]Deuteronomy 21:7-8Psalms 106:38Genesis 9:6 34Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell. For I, the Lord, dwell among the Israelites.”[ † ]Leviticus 18:24-25Deuteronomy 21:23Exodus 29:45-46